"May the only dust she gathers be from Flour!"

Homestyle Meatloaf with Brown Sugar Glaze

I found out recently that AJ likes Meatloaf. That reminded me of a meatloaf that my Mom made growing up, in the microwave. Yes, you read that right, the microwave. In fact, we had a whole microwave cookbook! (She had other fun ways to cook fish in the dishwasher but that’s a story for another time). Valentines Day was coming up, and what says “love” to a man like meat shaped like a loaf? I went on a mission to find a non-microwave version of the dish I grew up loving.

Okay, I’m going to tell you now, that I didn’t take pictures of the finished product. You’re going to have to trust me, it was yummy. Besides, loaves of meat don’t photograph well.

Back to the story.

When my parents retired to Florida, one of the priceless heritage items that made itself into the “SARA KEEP” box was the Microwave cookbook. So, I consulted it for the meatloaf recipe. I found one on the internet that seemed pretty similar and combined what I liked from each to make the following recipe.

Ingredients

For the Loaf:

1poundground beef chuck

1 1/4teaspoonssalt

1/4teaspoonground black pepper

1egg,beaten

8ouncecan diced tomatoes – with the juice

1/2cupquick cooking oats

For the Brown Sugar Glaze:

1/3cupketchup

3tablespoonsbrown sugar

1tablespoonyellow mustard

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix the ground beef, salt, pepper, egg, oats and diced tomatoes well. use your hands, but don’t overwork the meat. Mix until the ingredients are combined.

Form a loaf and place in a baking dish.

Mix ketchup, brown sugar, mustard and Worcester sauce together and set aside.

Bake uncovered 1 hour.

◘ Drain the grease away twice while cooking (tipping the dish and use a spoon or hold the meatloaf with a spatula and drain straight from the dish.)

◘ Half way through baking, spread the sauce over the meatloaf.

Serve!

Valentines supper was a success in our household! Hubby and I both enjoyed this and the little that was leftover will reheat nicely.

(Shameless plug, for the full scoop on our date, check out the other blog I am working on, The Art*ful Home.)

If you want the oven baked website recipe, you can find it here. (It includes green peppers and onions and omits Worcester sauce from the glaze.)

If you want the microwave recipe, you can find it here. (It uses tomato sauce instead of diced tomato and doesn’t have the peppers).